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TENNESSEE VETERANS HOME POSTPONED FOR
ONE YEAR -- Lack of funding from VA
delays Montgomery County facility.
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http://www.theleafchronicle.com/
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Vets home postponed for 1 year
Building delayed due to lack of $12 million
from VA
By CHANTAL ESCOTO
The Leaf-Chronicle
The May 2008 ground-breaking for the Montgomery County Veterans Nursing
Home has been pushed back at least another year because of a delay in
federal funding.
Tennessee State Veterans Home Board Executive Director Polly Darnall
said she received a letter from the VA in Washington, D.C., stating it
could not come up with it's part of the $18 million needed this year to
construct the 140-bed facility.
The proposed nursing home is to be built at the 25-acre site along State
Line Road, although the location has not officially been accepted.
"We haven't received the (federal) funding so there's no rush in
selecting the site," Darnall said.
Some Veterans Board members had voiced concerns the State Line Road site
is too close to Kentucky and the home should be closer to downtown.
But former Montgomery County Veterans Nursing Home chairman Sidney Brown
said because the State Line Road site was donated by the
Clarksville-Montgomery County Industrial Development Board, it would be
the most cost- effective. Moreover, Brown said because of the site's
proximity to Fort Campbell and the many veterans in the area, the home
could be open to Kentucky, Tennessee and other states' residents.
"We've got the land, and it's been made suitable. It doesn't matter
where the veteran is from, they should be able to use the nursing home,"
he said.
According to the VA letter mailed to Darnall, the Montgomery County
Veterans Home ranked 87th on the priority list for funding. "Once placed
on the priority list ... your project will continue to compete each year
with all other pending projects," the letter reads.
Darnall plans to reapply for the $12 million grant before the April 15
deadline. State, county and city governments have honored their part of
the deal by securing a site and committing $6 million to build the home.
Darnall said her office will continue to submit the grant paperwork, but
the hope is funding will come in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
"We will keep resubmitting the grant for as long as it takes," Darnall
said. "We hope we receive it, if not we'll keep submitting it."
State Rep. Curtis Johnson, R-Clarksville, said the matter is in federal
hands now, but he believes the funding will eventually come.
"I think all the veterans homes have had some kind of glitch or speed
bump," Johnson said. "We just have to get over them or around them."
Darnall agreed, and said the Knoxville 140-bed facility that opened in
January was delayed for the same reason.
Brown urges veterans to contact their U.S. legislators to make sure
Tennessee's fourth nursing home is put on the DoD construction
appropriations list for next year.
"I'm disappointed," Brown said. "I thought we did everything we could to
get this pushed through. It's politics."
Chantal Escoto can be reached at 245-0216 or by e-mail at
chantalescoto@theleafchronicle.com.
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Larry Scott --
